From Modern Mythcraft to Magical Surrealism

Top 10 Steampunk Gadgets

by
The Fantasy Magazine Staff

Cultural movements that inspire devotion and fanishness are often not given enough credit for the inventiveness they arouse. Steampunk is especially rife with masterpieces of fashion, art, craft, and technology. Every time you think you’ve seen the coolest, most out there steampunk creation another comes along. Of the specimens we’ve come across, these are our ten favorites.

Somewhat similar to its optically-focused brethren in that it isn’t a Steampunk specific trend, gasmasks are still a common element for the genre, particularly in stories that lean to the side of dystopia. All that coal and steam doesn’t exactly do wonders for the air quality.

For all you high-functioning businesspeople who don’t look crazy enough shouting about mergers and acquisitions to thin air–now you can look like a crazy cyborg businessman shouting about mergers and acquisitions to thin air.

While this could definitely be paired with the laptop from #5, we had to rate this mouse higher because it looks like a tiny golden (many-geared and thing-a-ma-bobbed) tank. And tank beats station wagon in every game of rock paper scissors I’ve ever played. Even the cord and the USB port on this puppy are classy.

Vying for top spot is another bit of communication-related technology. Though not as initially eye-catching as the Blue Tooth device above at #7, the functional design of this cell phone is what makes it intriguing and ultimately a venture into Steampunk-styled fantasy. In order to make calls, you have to use hole-punched cards that you slide into the phone. Though not capable of many of the utilities we’ve come to expect from even the average cell phone (let alone the upper tier of devices like iPhones or Blackberries), the design is too ambitious to be ignored, flaunting its inefficiency as nostalgic simplicity in the face of the demanding cellular phone market.

Abandoning the more heavily cog-gy, gear-iness of some of the previous gadgets brings us to something that is undeniably a work of refined grace. While form might give way to function in this piece, the concept of ethereal beauty mixed with already aesthetic technology–perfectly blended in this work of art–is entirely central to Steampunk ideology.

This list was compiled by Fantasy staffers Nicole D. Leffel and Samantha Chapman with input from Keith Thompson and Evelyn Kriete. Descriptions and commentary by Nicole D. Leffel.

From the Editor

I wanted to start with the idea of the origin story. Every writer has one, and it’s always interesting to hear how writers of color navigated the choppy waters of reading fantasy early on and then deciding to write it. I remember searching for myself, in that languageless sort of way we do when we’re young and don’t know the larger meaning of our search.